R
Regord
Hello forum. To introduce myself, my name is Roger and my wife Val and I live in the UK.
My wife is 64 yrs old and is suffering from severe mitral regurgitation and needs a mitral valve repair/replacement. She is now struggling to breath due to the pressure on her lungs and requires oxygen. Her general state of health is also very poor which means the risk of not survivng surgery or suffering post-operative complications is estimated to be 20-25%. However the alternative of not having the surgery is that her heart will fail in less than 2 years, probably a lot less. She also suffers from severe and chronic rheumatoid arthritis and lives with constant, daily pain. I add this because any further long term suffering caused by this procedure would be intolerable.
To help her make a decision regarding having the surgery or not is somewhat dependant on the potential benefit of the valve replacement weighed against the significant risks. We wonder if anyone here could relate their experiences of this procedure, particularly in cases where they were suffering severe symptoms prior to surgery and could describe the level of improvement gained and in what time scale.
We would be really grateful for any help you may be able to provide. Thank you in anticipation.
Roger
My wife is 64 yrs old and is suffering from severe mitral regurgitation and needs a mitral valve repair/replacement. She is now struggling to breath due to the pressure on her lungs and requires oxygen. Her general state of health is also very poor which means the risk of not survivng surgery or suffering post-operative complications is estimated to be 20-25%. However the alternative of not having the surgery is that her heart will fail in less than 2 years, probably a lot less. She also suffers from severe and chronic rheumatoid arthritis and lives with constant, daily pain. I add this because any further long term suffering caused by this procedure would be intolerable.
To help her make a decision regarding having the surgery or not is somewhat dependant on the potential benefit of the valve replacement weighed against the significant risks. We wonder if anyone here could relate their experiences of this procedure, particularly in cases where they were suffering severe symptoms prior to surgery and could describe the level of improvement gained and in what time scale.
We would be really grateful for any help you may be able to provide. Thank you in anticipation.
Roger